07 September 2009

fun stuff I may or may not get to: September

Things I'm either seeing or wish I could see this month:

Coming right up on September 9, check out the Jack Curtis Dubowsky Ensemble at Meridian Gallery in San Francisco. I really loved Dubowsky’s Eisenhower Address, which I heard last year. This should be fun.

The New Century Chamber Orchestra opens its season September 10-13 with pieces by Bach and Mussorgsky.

The San Francisco Symphony opens with a Mahler Festival; Michael Tilson Thomas conducts the Mahler 1 and Susan Graham sings the Ruckert Lieder.

San Francisco Opera opens with Il Trovatore, conducted by new music director Nicola Luisotti and starring a promising cast: Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Sandra Radvanovsky, Stephanie Blythe, and Marco Berti.

I ended up not subscribing or donating to Cal Performances this year, mostly because I got tired of giving them more money each year and each year receiving fewer of the seats I wanted. But this is probably the most exciting month they have this season: the Mark Morris Dance Group in Empire Garden and Visitation, both west coast premieres; A House in Bali, a new “dance-opera” with music by Evan Ziporyn; and a recital by Christine Brewer.

San Francisco Performances, on the other hand, is currently very high on my good-will list, partly as a carry-over from last season's Elliott Carter centennial weekend and the Philip Glass Music in 12 Parts, but also because I thought they were one of the few local groups that was offering an exciting and adventurous upcoming season. Definitely check out their offerings. Most of what I’m seeing is in 2010, but this month I am going to Thomas Hampson's recital.

Cutting Ball Theater opens its Hidden Classics reading series with The Knights by Aristophanes on September 27. Rare as it is to see Greek tragedy, it’s even rarer to see Greek comedy.

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